After the Arab Spring revolution the Islamist Ennahdha Party took control of the once moderate Tunisia. But after recent clashes and unrest Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali resigned this past week. In response, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki asked Interior Minister Ali Larayedh, a hardliner from the main Islamist Ennahda party, to form a government within two weeks. Ali Larayedh was picked as prime minister by his party.

That's where things get interesting. The new Tunisian prime minister has been embroiled in a gay prison sex video scandal.

It is possible, apparently, that this is a photoshop, or even merely a man with a physical resemblance to the new PM. Or not. All sorts of links at the link.

#5
Instead of a summary, I'll simply say that the reason I didn't realize this article was behind a paywall is that when I did a search with the word "Wilders" in Google News, I was able to see the whole article.

#3
Remember its government accounting. It doesn't include future obligations already committed (ie pensions)*, because they're only reporting what's due today and on the debt interest (treasury bonds, etc). * not much different than today's state and cities who've now hit that big black hole, but don't have the means to 'legally' (inflate) money.

#6
Its so massive the LeftMedia has begun showing on TV only debt figures that are already outdated, + had been for a time.

GOP-DEM Congresscritters also want to copy or adopt France's method of temporary raises in the debt ceiling, which other EU States are repor also mulling to adopt.

Finally, there's the "write-off", its-not-fudging-the books-iff the-Govt-does-it method the Soviets used just before their USSR imploded + collapsed, i.e. where THEY ROUTINELY JUST ERASED THEIR GOVT-PUBLIC LIABILITIES FROM THE ACCOUNTING + BUDGETING BOOKS, ETC.

I can see the Bammer telling JAPAN now - "We in the USA rly rely Really REALLY RRRREEEEEELLLLYY,
D *** YOU, WANT TO INTERVENE ON YOUR BEHALF AGZ CHINA OER THE DISPUTED SENKAKUS/DIAOYU ISLANDS BUT UNFORTUNATELY AMERICA CAN'T AFFORD IT - WE'RE WITH YOU IN SPIRIT, THOUGH".

Former Director of the CIA and NSA Gen. Michael Hayden and report author Robin Simcox will speak at the event being held 10:00  11:00 a.m. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 1800 K Street, N.W. The report is the most in-depth study of al-Qaeda terrorism in the United States ever to be published and similar reports from the Henry Jackson Society focused on the U.K. have been used by the British government in formulating national counterterrorism and counter-radicalization strategy.

[Dawn] AWAY from the media headlines focused on local governments, elections and the like, upper Sindh has been roiled by a series of protests this week. The trigger was a kaboom near Jacobabad on Thursday targeting a senior Barelvi leader in the province, Syed Ghulam Hussain Shah, custodian of the Dargah Hussainabad in Qamber. Mr Shah survived but a grandson died in the attack, sending sectarian -- Barelvi-Deobandi in this case -- tensions soaring in upper Sindh. Bomb attacks are still rare in the region, the last major incident being a foiled suicide kaboom against Ibrahim Jatoi, a leader of the National People's Party, in December 2010 on Muharram 10. There was also the appalling case last December of the man accused of blasphemy who was dragged from a police lock-up and burned alive. While still too early to identify a definite pattern of violence, bubbling under the surface are all manner of societal changes that may be turning the land of Sufis that interior Sindh has long been known as into a bastion of intolerance and extremism.

As with most such emerging threats, the genesis can be traced to the breakdown of traditional social structures. Generally viewed from the outside as static and stuck several centuries in the past, interior Sindh has in fact changed a great deal in recent years. Feudalism has been weakened, as have the tribal structures predominant in upper Sindh. Sufi Islam too has suffered as succession chains at various shrines have been disputed, often with an eye to the social prestige and domination over land that control of a shrine can bring. There has also been the emergence of a rural middle class and new urban centres -- realities that have been hidden away in part because no census has been held since 1998. While change should be welcomed, the problem in Sindh is that the state has not stepped in to provide direction and structure to the new social and economic realities. Inevitably, then, the space is being filled by a growing private mosque, madressah and social welfare network with its own priorities and agenda.

Is it too early to flag the problem as a serious threat? Perhaps. But it's in the nature of such slow-moving changes that by the time they emerge as serious threats to the social fabric and national stability, it is too late to stop them. The effects of letting sectarianism grow unchallenged and uncontested in other parts of the country are all too apparent. The core of Sindh is still moderate and non-violent. Now is the time to move to protect it.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.